INVITATION TO QUOTE
Experience Nottinghamshire Ltd
Delivery of Enterprise Support for ERDF
Funded Project – Nottingham event Bidding
Unit EMX08075
Date: 3rd October 2013
Experience Nottinghamshire Ltd
Gothic House
Barker Gate
Nottingham
NG1 1JU
0115 9628320
1.
INTRODUCTION
Experience Nottinghamshire is a not for profit Company Limited by Guarantee, a
Destination Management Organization representing public and private sector
members to grow and promote Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to visitor
markets.
Experience Nottinghamshire operates under service level agreements from local
authority partners, and membership income from over 400 private sector businesses.
The board of directors is representative of these partner organisations and oversee the
company’s core mission to develop strategy, and deliver tactical projects to maximise
growth in tourism to the destination.
For
more
information
about
www.experiencenottinghamshire.com
2.
Experience
Nottinghamshire
please
visit
BACKGROUND
In 2011, Experience Nottinghamshire submitted an ERDF competiveness fund
application to deliver the Event Bidding Unit project. This project had been developed in
partnership with public and private stakeholders over the previous eighteen months, to
address a market failure in the local business tourism market. Following appraisal, the
project commenced on 1st April 2013 for a two year period.
The aim of the project is to attract major events with significant economic impact to the
city of Nottingham. These will include conferences, sports and cultural events. The
project works with 45 conference and accommodation providers to attract this business.
Project activity will include marketing & promotion of the City, as well as providing free
services ot the event organiser in order to make Nottingham an attractive proposition and
correct the market failure.
The project is managed by Experience Nottinghamshire itself, and Experience
Nottinghamshire are the accountable body and contract holder with the ERDF
Secretariat.
The project is funded through
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ERDF Priority Axis 2 - £440,000
University & public sector funding - £156,056
Private sector funding - £163,260
The project, over its 2 year life, will generate £13million of additional visitor spend into
the Nottingham visitor economy by delivering four strands of activity:
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3.
Creating capacity; the project sales team will co-ordinate citywide bids for
conferences and events
Marketing; the project includes attendance at trade shows and advertising to
generate prospects and event leads
Visitor Welcome; the project will use technology to make information about the
destination readily available to delegates and visitors
Market intelligence; the project will commission industry data to inform tactical
activity and future strategic direction
TENDER SPECIFICATION
Description of Requirement
As a requirement of our ERDF funding, we require a supplier to deliver business
mentoring in order to support improved productivity and competitiveness for businesses
within the project area, see section 4 below.
Full documentary information and details of the project will be provided to the successful
tenderer.
Working Arrangements
The evaluation project will be overseen by David Randall who is Director of Conferencing
and Events at Experience Nottinghamshire. The successful Tenderer will be expected to
identify one named project manager to whom all contract and day to day enquiries can
be addressed.
4.
PROJECT REQUIREMENT – AIMS & OBJECTIVES
4.1
Experience Nottinghamshire is seeking to recruit a Contractor to deliver the
business mentoring element of the project, supporting delivery of contracted
project outputs prior to target dates.
4.1.1
This mentoring should comprise four elements:
a. Business planning, to improve focus, targeted and measurable business
actions
b. On and off-line presence and communications
c. Business resilience, retaining customers in challenging times
d. Capture of business support evidence required for reporting outputs to the
project funders.
4.2
You are invited to suggest other areas which may be addressed as part of this
mentoring although the areas outlined above must be incorporated as the focus
of the work. However, in your proposal you must outline:
4.2.1
Your approach to undertaking the project, addressing each of the areas to be
covered as outlined above.
4.2.2
Timescales and reporting, this should include details including any interim, draft,
and final reports in addition to an executive summary as appropriate (note – this
is not a pre-condition), clearly indicating the recipient audiences. The timing of
these reports should be linked to and clearly stated in the timetable
4.2.3
Your knowledge and experience in this area, particularly in terms of the
enterprise support and the business arena
4.2.4
The knowledge and experience of individuals to be involved in this work and
relevant contact point
4.2.5
Proposed outcomes, including how you will present those outcomes and the
methodology to be used.
4.2.6
Costs. Cost estimates should include all design, facilitation and production related
costs and include the transfer of all materials to Experience Nottinghamshire at
the end of the project. The total cost of the project should not exceed £15,000 +
VAT.
Contact with a representative number of beneficiaries may need to be established
to gauge their satisfaction with support received. Contact with member
organizations of Experience Nottinghamshire would be in the first instance
through the management of EN
Period of Contract
The contract shall commence November 2013 and run until the end of July 2015, the
financial conclusion of this phase of the project.
Budget
The budget for this evaluation is capped at £15,000 plus VAT if applicable. Please note
that Experience Nottinghamshire is a VAT registered organisation and therefore the VAT
status of the tenderer is irrelevant.
Evaluation of Tenders
Tenders will be evaluated by Experience Nottinghamshire Ltd.
Tenderers are asked to submit within their tenders the following information which
corresponds to the key areas of evaluation:
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A detailed breakdown of total costs showing all elements of expenditure relating to
the Contract, including VAT
A demonstrable understanding of the brief of the project
Methodologies proposed for contract delivery
The qualifications, experience, expertise and skills of the individuals to be assigned
to the project
5.
INSTRUCTIONS TO TENDERERS
Tender Timescales
The following timescales are envisaged.
Stage
Date
Tender closing date
16th October 2013
Evaluation and award
18th October 2013
Inception meeting
During October 2013, subject to availability
Progress/review meetings
as required
Reporting
Quarterly until the project deliverables
have been achieved, by End July 2015.
Please submit your proposals, within the dates specified above, in electronic format only
(Microsoft Word) to david.randall@experiencenottinghamshire.com
Tenderers should note that in the event that a bid is considered to be fundamentally
unacceptable on a key issue, regardless of its other merits, that bid may be rejected
Tenders submitted after the time and date shown will be rejected and returned to the
tenderer
The tender document must not exceed 8 pages, A4. Additional background information
may be included in appendices to the main document. Information included within the
annexes, must only provide further detail and not key elements of the proposal
If you require further information concerning the tender process, or the nature of the
proposed contract, please in the first instance contact:
David Randall
Experience Nottinghamshire Ltd
david.randall@experiencenottinghamshire.com
07515 392109
No questions will be answered that provide competitive advantage to any party
tendering.
Should questions arise during the tendering period which, in our judgement, are of
material significance we will inform all tenderers to explain the nature of the question,
and our formal reply. All tenderers should then take that reply into consideration when
preparing their own bids, and we will evaluate bids on the assumption that they have
done so.
6.
CONDITIONS OF TENDER
Representations
A tenderer may contact officers of Experience Nottinghamshire to obtain any further
information about the requirements of the contract or the tendering procedures if these
are not evident or clear from the documents supplied to tenderers.
Specification
For the avoidance of doubt, the contract specification shall include all requirements
explicit or implied within the invitation to tender.
It must be recognised that Experience Nottinghamshire reserve the right to withdraw this
tender document and all funding contained within it without notice.
Tenders Excluded
No tender will be considered for acceptance if the tenderer has indulged or attempted to
indulge in any corrupt practice or canvassed the tender with officer of Experience
Nottinghamshire or partner organisations. If a tenderer has indulged or attempted to
indulge in such practices and the tender is accepted, then grounds shall exist for the
termination of the contract and the claiming damages from the successful tenderers.
It is unlikely that any tender will be accepted which (a) is incomplete or inaccurately or
inadequately completed or which purports to impose conditions other than those
provided in the contract documents and (b) is delivered out of time or in a manner other
than specified in the specification.
Collusive Tendering
In submitting a tender against this contract, the tenderer confirms that he has not fixed or
adjusted the amount of the tender by or under or in accordance with any agreement or
arrangement with any other person.
The tenderer also certifies that at no time, before or following the submission of the
tender, has the Tenderer carried out any of the following acts:
i) communicating to a person other than the person calling for the tenders
the amount or approximate amount of the proposed tender, except where
such disclosure is required for the purpose of obtaining insurance;
ii) entering into any agreement or arrangement with any person that he
shall refrain from tendering or as to the amount of any tender to be
submitted;
iii) offering or paying or giving or agreeing to give any sum of money or
valuable consideration directly or indirectly to any person for doing or
having done or causing or having caused to be done in relation to any other
tender or proposed tender for the said work any act or thing of the sort
described above. The context of this clause the word ‘person’ includes any
persons and any body or association, corporate or unincorporated; and ‘any
agreement or arrangement’ includes any such transaction, formal or
informal, and whether legally binding or not.
Freedom of Information
Information in relation to this tender may be made available on demand in accordance
with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Tenderers should state if any of the information supplied by them is confidential or
commercially sensitive or should not be disclosed in response to a request for
information under the Act. Tenderers should state why they consider the information to
be confidential or commercially sensitive. This will not guarantee that the information will
not be disclosed but will be examined in the light of the exemptions provided in the Act.
It is important to note that information may be commercially sensitive for a time (e.g.
during a tender process) but afterwards it may not be. The timing of any request for
information may be extremely important in determining whether or not information is
exempt. However, Tenderers should note that no information is likely to be regarded as
exempt forever.